Israel to Evacuate City of 22,000 as Hezbollah Rockets Fall on Northern Border Regions and Troops Ready to Invade Gaza

Israel on Friday ordered the 22,000 residents of a city near the Lebanese frontier to evacuate as cross-border fire increased and its troops were told to prepare for an imminent invasion of Gaza.

Many residents already had fled Kiryat Shmona, a city with a large population of Moroccan Jews just one mile east and three miles south of Israel’s border with Lebanon, according to local media. Those who have remained will be given shelter in government guesthouses. 

Three residents were injured Thursday by a rocket strike in what appeared to be the most serious attack on the city since the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006. Kiryat Shmona is Israel’s northernmost city.

Israel’s National Emergency Management Authority is working to evacuate all communities located within a mile and a half of the border. 

The Israel Defense Forces said Friday it had hit more Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon overnight in retaliation for rocket fire on northern Israel — part of a pattern of growing escalation after Iran earlier this week threatened to open a northern front in Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza. 

Iran-backed Hezbollah controls most of Lebanon’s southern border, and has been trading fire with Israeli forces since shortly after Hamas launched its devastating Oct. 7 surprise attack on southern Israel, killing 1,400 people. More than 3,700 Gazans have died in continuing Israeli air strikes on the territory. 

The IDF said it had killed “a terrorist operative” in a drone strike near the Lebanese border, but it gave no details on the person or their affiliation.

On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told soldiers near the Gaza border in southern Israel that they would invade the Hamas-ruled enclave “soon.”

“You now see Gaza from afar, soon you will see it from the inside,” Gallant told troops. “The order will come.”